In March 1981, a Sichuan restaurant called Chuanxiangfu opened next to Wangfujing Street.
On the opening day, after discussing with He Yuzhu, Wang Gang decided to hold a grand opening ceremony. There were discounts for the first three days of the opening, with 30% off on all dishes.
Wang Gang personally took care of the decoration of Chuanxiang Mansion, which cost him nearly 50,000 yuan. It was considered very luxurious in this era.
For this matter, Ran Qiuye specially asked Wang Gang to sign a cooperation agreement, giving up 60% of Sichuan Xiang Mansion's profits, while they only accounted for 40%.
In fact, He Yuzhu only spent 5,000 yuan to open a restaurant this time, which was less than 10% of the capital. Originally, Ran Qiuye was prepared to give up 80% of the profit, but Wang Gang refused.
Naturally, Wang Gang was not having trouble with money, but was demanding to give up profits.
His request was very simple, that is, He Yuzhu should train a chef.
Wang Gang has long thought that Chuanxiangfu will definitely open branches in the future. According to his intention, he will open Chuanxiangfu in all districts of Sijiu City and turn it into a chain brand.
He has confidence in He Yuzhu's cooking skills, but he is not sure about his management ability.
Therefore, Wang Gang personally took over the management of the restaurant in the early stage, and He Yuzhu learned from it.
Sichuan Xiangfu's promotions in the first three days were very strong, attracting many customers to eat. He Yuzhu even showed off his skills and received a lot of praise.
Three days later, the promotion ended and the store's business dropped a lot, but customers still came to the store one after another.
Because He Yuzhu had to work in the factory during the day and could only cook at night, Sichuan Xiangfu only did evening business, which made He Yuzhu very tired.
A month later, He Yuzhu and Wang Gang sat down to reconcile the accounts and found that the restaurant's monthly turnover was nearly 20,000 yuan, and its gross profit was also 3,000 to 4,000 yuan.
He Yuzhu saw that he could earn more than a thousand a month, and he could no longer afford the salary of more than 30 in the factory.
After Ran Qiuye saw the account books, he could no longer object to He Yuzhu's decision to resign and go to sea, and could only agree to He Yuzhu's resignation.
Time passed day by day, and Wang Gang became completely busy.
Zhao Zihao's three stores need to purchase goods, and He Yuzhu's restaurant needs to be managed. Wang Gang leaves early every morning and comes back late every day. Sometimes he has to go on business trips to purchase goods. He is so busy that his feet cannot touch the ground, and his wife and children cannot see him.
After the reform, various parts of the country also entered a period of development. First, prices in the forty-nine cities began to rise, although the increase was not as large as later.
Wang Gang knew that it would take until the 1990s for prices to rise across the country, when the national average salary would exceed 100 yuan.
The spring breeze of change has indeed made a group of bold people rich first.
Wang Gang and Zhao Zihao firmly grasped this spring breeze. After a year of hard work, in 1981, they settled their accounts and each made about 400,000 yuan.
Sichuan Xiangfu did not develop as fast as Taobao Wang, and the capital was large, so the profit in the first year was not much. After deducting all the capital, there was still a profit of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.
The restaurant made back its money within one year, which made Wang Gang even more eager to open a branch.
At present, rents in Sijiucheng have not yet fully risen, and the majority of restaurant costs still lie in staff wages and food costs.
After discussing with He Yuzhu, Wang Gang decided to use the profits from Sichuan Xiangfu and add some money to open a branch.
He Yuzhu's eldest apprentice, Ma Hua, has been with him for more than ten years and has already graduated. Wang Gang has also tried his skills and is good enough to be the chef of the branch.
Wang Gang understood how money begets money, so he gave the MCA branch 5% of the shares and tied him tightly. If the branch's business is good in the future, he can try to increase the shares.
Ma Hua is an honest and conscientious person. When he heard that Wang Gang not only gave him salary but also shares, he immediately resigned from the factory and followed him.
As for He Yuzhu's other apprentice, Fatty, when he heard about Ma Hua, he came to He Yuzhu with a smile on his face, but was sent away by Wang Gang in the end.
Wang Gang has not forgotten his desire to open a department store. During this period, he has been traveling all over the country to find sources of goods, negotiated with many factories, and obtained the exclusive agency rights of Sijiucheng.
In 1982, Wang Gang took a fancy to a piece of land in Sijiucheng and heard that the government wanted to build a modern community nearby. This also marked that the country would liberalize the sale of houses.
Wang Gang found the leaders of the district and inquired for a long time before confirming that the news was true and that the location was near Fangjiazhuang on the edge of Sijiu City.
After confirming this, Wang Gang became eager and took out all his family's savings to invest in a piece of land to build a department store.
Unfortunately, he calculated over and over again that he had less than one million in savings and was far from being able to acquire even a small piece of land.
Just when Wang Gang was thinking about how to make money, Lou Xiaoe suddenly came to Sijiucheng.
At that time, Wang Gang was sitting in the general manager's office of Chuanxiang Mansion, feeling worried, when a waiter suddenly came to tell him that a woman named Lou Xiao'e was looking for him.
Wang Gang hurried downstairs and saw Lou Xiao'e standing at the door of Chuanxiang Mansion.
"Sister Lou, why are you here?" Wang Gang happily welcomed Lou Xiao'e into the restaurant's private room and asked the waiter to prepare a pot of good tea.
"Why can't I come? Didn't I give you my phone number? Why didn't you contact me?"
Wang Gang smiled and said, "I've been really busy lately and haven't taken care of it."
Lou Xiao'e took a look at the decoration of Chuanxiang Mansion and said, "You have done a good job in the past two years! Clothing stores and restaurants have opened."
Wang Gang smiled and said: "How can you manage a small business to get Sister Lou's attention?"
Lou Xiao'e said: "The decoration of your restaurant is very unique. Although it is not big, it does a lot of business. It has made a lot of money in the past two years!"
Wang Gang said modestly: "You can't compare with Sister Lou. Your factory has already opened!"
Lou Xiao'e said: "The factory has been built in Pengcheng and the first batch of goods has been produced. I am not coming to Sijiucheng to see if there are any sales channels."
Wang Gang slapped the table and said, "Sister Lou, please give me the goods to sell! I'm planning to open a shoe store specifically to sell shoes."
Lou Xiao'e said with a smile: "I have long heard about your Taohuo King shoe store. The business is something that no one in the industry would not envy. We agreed to cooperate at the beginning."
"It's a small business, not worth mentioning."
"Don't be modest. I went to your store and the shop assistants are all young and beautiful girls. You are very good at doing business!" Lou Xiao'e said.
Next, Wang Gang and Lou Xiao'e discussed cooperation matters. Wang Gang was indeed planning to open a shoe store specializing in selling shoes in the most prosperous street of Sijiu City. The place had been found.
Wang Gang has also seen samples of the shoes produced by Lou Xiaoe's family's shoe factory. They are the best in terms of style and quality, and they are very exciting.
Wang Gang plans to package it as a well-known brand in Xiangjiang and make it the flagship product of the shoe store.
Lou Xiaoe and Wang Gang went to see the shops in Shoe City together. It was a four-story small shopping mall. The house was not new and needed to be renovated.
Wang Gang originally planned to rent the house, but after Lou Xiao'e inspected it, she persuaded him to buy it, saying that the value would definitely increase in the future.
"Now there is no way to transfer the ownership of the house. If you can't buy it, you can only rent it!" Wang Gang said.
"You can sign a contract with the landlord first, and then take the contract to transfer ownership when the house can be transferred," Lou Xiao'e said.
Wang Gang slapped his head and said, "Why didn't I think of that?"
